Adhesive vs. Gum — What's the Difference?

Adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation.The use of adhesives offers certain advantages over other binding techniques such as sewing, mechanical fastenings, or welding. These include the ability to bind different materials together, the more efficient distribution of stress across a joint, the cost-effectiveness of an easily mechanized process, and greater flexibility in design.

Any of various viscous substances that are exuded by certain plants and trees and dry into water-soluble, noncrystalline, brittle solids.

Tending to adhere; sticky.

A similar plant exudate, such as a resin.

Gummed so as to adhere.

Any of various adhesives made from such exudates or other sticky substance.

Tending to persist; difficult if not impossible to shake off

A substance resembling the viscous substance exuded by certain plants, as in stickiness.

A substance, such as paste or cement, that provides or promotes adhesion.

Any of various trees, especially of the genera Eucalyptus and Liquidambar, that are sources of gum. Also called gum tree.

Sticky; tenacious, as glutinous substances

The wood of such a tree; gumwood.

Apt or tending to adhere; clinging

Chewing gum.

A substance, such as glue, that provides or promotes adhesion

The firm connective tissue covered by mucous membrane that envelops the alveolar arches of the jaw and surrounds the bases of the teeth. Also called gingiva.

Sticky; tenacious, as glutinous substances.

To cover, smear, seal, fill, or fix in place with gum.

Apt or tending to adhere; clinging.

To exude or form gum.

A substance that unites or bonds surfaces together

To become sticky or clogged.

Tending to adhere

To chew (food) with toothless gums.

The flesh around the teeth.

Any of various viscous or sticky substances that are exuded by certain plants.

Any viscous or sticky substance resembling those that are exuded by certain plants.

Chewing gum.

(countable) A single piece of chewing gum.

A gummi candy.

A hive made of a section of a hollow gum tree; hence, any roughly made hive.

A vessel or bin made from a hollow log.

A rubber overshoe.

A gum tree.

To chew, especially of a toothless person or animal.

(transitive) To deepen and enlarge the spaces between the teeth of (a worn saw), as with a gummer.

To apply an adhesive or gum to; to make sticky by applying a sticky substance to.

To stiffen with glue or gum.

To inelegantly attach into a sequence.

To impair the functioning of a thing or process.

The dense tissues which invest the teeth, and cover the adjacent parts of the jaws.

A vegetable secretion of many trees or plants that hardens when it exudes, but is soluble in water; as, gum arabic; gum tragacanth; the gum of the cherry tree. Also, with less propriety, exudations that are not soluble in water; as, gum copal and gum sandarac, which are really resins.

See Gum tree, below.

A hive made of a section of a hollow gum tree; hence, any roughly made hive; also, a vessel or bin made of a hollow log.

A rubber overshoe.

To deepen and enlarge the spaces between the teeth of (a worn saw). See Gummer.

To smear with gum; to close with gum; to unite or stiffen by gum or a gumlike substance; to make sticky with a gumlike substance.

To chew with the gums, rather than with the teeth.

To exude or form gum; to become gummy.

A preparation (usually made of sweetened chicle) for chewing

The tissue (covered by mucous membrane) of the jaws that surrounds the bases of the teeth

Any of various substances (soluble in water) that exude from certain plants; they are gelatinous when moist but harden on drying

Cement consisting of a sticky substance that is used as an adhesive

Wood or lumber from any of various gum trees especially the sweet gum

Any of various trees of the genera Eucalyptus or Liquidambar or Nyssa that are sources of gum

Grind with the gums; chew without teeth and with great difficulty;

Exude or form gum;